How to Have Hope When You Feel Abandoned

“Abandon.” I see the word, and my breath catches. My heart skips a beat, and my mind is flooded with memories.

If you’ve ever seen the movie “Hope Floats,” you might remember a scene when the young girl stands screaming for her daddy in the middle of the street.

I remember that scene vividly because I lived it. That feeling of abandonment is one I know too well.

It colors the world around you in doubt, fear and insecurity. It makes trust difficult and relationships hard. It can send you running down a road lined on one side with people pleasing and on the other with jealousy, and both are rooted in the fear of being abandoned….again.

Many of the my poorest choices were made on that pain-paved road.

Still, I look back down it and see such bittersweet beauty because walking that road of abandonment led me straight to the one who taught me how to live and love with true abandon.

And that’s what set me free.

He taught me to forgive others freely because I’ve been forgiven.

He showed me how to love without fear of losing.

And, he comforted me with these truths:

He Does Not Play Hide and Seek With Us

When we fear losing the love others offer, we strive to earn it; we seek to sustain it. One day, this works; another day, that. And, just like that little girl in “Hope Floats,” we’re often left crying for the love that just left, right when we thought we’d finally found it.

Hear this: God doesn’t work that way.

Psalm 9:10 says, “Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

God does not play hide and seek. He plays seek and find. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)

You do not need to fear rejection because he longs for relationship with you.

He Will Not Forget You

For me, one of the hardest things to overcome is the feeling of being forgotten. The thought that no one sees me or cares about my life from day to day results in deep loneliness. Especially if the person who forgets you is someone who simply should not.

But they do sometimes, and it hurts.

The thing is: God knows it because He sees you, and He cares.

Isaiah 49:15 says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.”

Y’all, he counts the hairs on your head. A friend of mine brought that to my mind recently when she said, he knows the number of her hairs that went down the drain this morning.

I mean, WHO CARES ABOUT THAT?

God does.

You are never forgotten because “the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.” (Psalm 33:18)

He Will Not Disappoint You

The thing is: people disappoint us. They say one thing and do another. God doesn’t.

His word is true. His promises are fulfilled. And, his love is everlasting.

Isaiah 49:23 says, “Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”

Y’all, I have been disappointed.

In people. In circumstances. In myself.

But not in God.

There have been times I’ve been tempted to think He’s disappointed me, but even in sorrow, his presence was sweet. Even in loneliness, I was never alone.

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